Erin Murphy had 15 kills and Linette White added 12 as Southwest Missouri State downed Illinois State 30-24, 34-32, 30-23 in a Missouri Valley Conference volleyball match before a crowd of 3,008 Saturday at Redbird Arena.
SMS, 11-3 overall, 5-0 in the Valley, beat the Redbirds at Redbird Arena for the first time since 1995. Illinois State has won 13 of the last 16 meetings with the Bears. SMS coach Melissa Stokes was pleased with her first coaching win over ISU in Redbird Arena in eight tries, which came before a crowd of 3,008, the 12th largest in Redbird volleyball history.
I have great respect for Illinois State, said Stokes. Its a great volleyball atmosphere and anytime you can get a win here, its a great win. Im pleased we could go 2-0 on our first Valley road trip of the season. The Valley is the toughest its ever been and any team could beat you if you arent ready to play on a given night.
The Redbirds fell to 4-8 overall, 2-4 in the Valley despite Paige Whites career-high 14 digs.
Erin Jones, Staci Boyce and Ashley Grubb also contributed strong performances for the Birds with 13, 11 and 10 kills, respectively, and Jenny Kabbes added eight blocks, but the Birds admitted that it was not one of their better matches of the season.
Im struggling to find something good to say about it, Jones said. It was a disappointing loss for us. When youre up eight (in the second game) at home and lose, its not about ability, its about heart.
Boyce agreed.
Its about pride, said Boyce. When you get pushed around on your home court, its very frustrating.
SMS had a 47-44 kill advantage, a 50-46 dig advantage and out-blocked the Birds 13-10. The Bears hit .214 to just .128 for Illinois State.
Early Redbird errors helped SMS got out to an 11-3 lead in game one. ISU got as close as 23-21, but SMS got three of its next five points on service errors and finished out the game.
Illinois State led by as much as 22-14 in game two before Erin Murphys three straight kills started a Bear rally. The Birds had three shots to serve for game point, but couldnt get it done.
The Redbirds led 8-7 in game three when Liesbeth Gorremans took the service line and served up the last three points of a 4-0 SMS run. ISU battled back to within 19-16 when Gorremans got herself back to the service line again with a kill of the block, then served three more and gave the Bears enough of a cushion.
Illinois State steps out of conference to play host to Northern Illinois at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Redbird Arena.
